Brief reflections on the journal Italianists keep

Abstract

The following three papers were given at a Round Table held at New York University's Casa Italiana in October 2005, chaired by Ruth Ben-Ghiat. As part of the events held to mark the tenth anniversary of the Journal of Modern Italian Studies, we asked our three invited speakers – Raymond Grew, Elizabeth Krause and Paolo Macry – to comment on the directions taken by the JMIS in its first decade and to set out some objectives for the future.     

The Siberian Railway

History of the New World called America. By Edward John Payne, Fellow of University College. Volume I. Oxford: At the Clarendon Press, 1892. Pp. xxviii + 546.

Travels in Africa during the Years 1882–1886. By Dr. Wilhelm Junker, Translated from the German by A. H. Keane, F.R.G.S. Illustrated. London: Chapman and Hall, 1892. Pp. viii + 586. Price 21s.

Up the Niger. Narrative of Major Claude Macdonald's Mission, to the Niger and Benué Rivers, West Africa. By Captain Mockler‐Ferryman, F.R.G.S. F.Z.S. With Maps and Illustrations. London : George Philip and Son, 1892. Pp. 326. Price 16s.

Cinq Années de Séjour aux Iles Canaries. Par le Dr. R. Verneau, Chargé de Missions Scientifiques. Ouvrage illustré de 42 gravures, 4 planches, et 1 carte. Couronné par l'Académie des Sciences. Pp. xvi + 412. Paris : A. Hennuyer, 1891.

Studies in Mohammedanism, Historical and Doctrinal, with a chapter on Islam in England. By John B. Pool. London: A. Constable and Co., 1892. Pp. xvi + 420. Price 6s.

Sicily (Story of the Nations): Phænician, Cheek, and Roman. By Edward A. Freeman, M.A., Hon. D.C.L., LL.D. London : T. Fisher Unwin, 1892. Pp. xvi + 378. Price 5s.

Afrihanische Petrefahten. Ein Versuch die grammatischen Bildungen und Formwurzeln der afrikanischen Sprachen durch Sprachvergleichung festzustellen. By A. W. Schleicher. Berlin : Theodor Fröhlich, 1891. Pp. 93.

Die Triangulation von Java, ausgeführt vow, Personal des geographischen Dienstes in Niederländisch Ost‐Indien. Dritte Abtheilung. Von Dr. J. A. C. Oudemaks. Haag: Martinus Nijhoff, 1891. Pp. 180.

Das Verebnen der Kugeloberflache fur Qradnetzentiviirfe. Von Dr. A. Bretjsing. Leipzig : Verlag von H. Wagner und E. Debes, 1892. Pp. 69. Price 3 m.

Appleton's General Guide to the United States and Canada. Illustrated. With Railway Maps, Plans of Cities, and Table of Railway and Steamboat Fares. Edinburgh: A. and C. Black, 1892.     

Measuring Transition and Mobility in the Hierarchical World–Economy

This paper provides a temporal stochastic framework that is used to analyze economic transitions of countries in the world–system. As such, it provides a contribution to a general quantitative rendering of the world–systems perspective. State space modeling using Markov chains provides a powerful stochastic instrument for global economic modeling when structure is known but relational uncertainty is present as well as for examining temporal change of geographic phenomena. Two phenomena are examined: (1) country mobility among regional classes within the world–economy; and (2) the stability of the rate of country–level transitions. Results suggest that although a moderate amount of movement has taken place in the period 1960–1990, the overall structure of the world–economy has not changed significantly. Thus, although the developmental hypothesis that countries are upwardly mobile has merit, empirical results suggest that very little impact is observed in the world–system because countries moving upward in the world–economy region sequence are nearly balanced by countries moving down the sequence.